Hello, and thank you for visiting my site. I hope that you'll return often and always find something of interest about my world and what inspires me to pick up a pen. (This is a figure of speech, unfortunately. My handwriting is terrible!) Here's what I've been up to recently...
The Festive Season Continues
The challenge for this year’s Ripon Writers’ Group’s Christmas Event (about which there is a great deal more on www.riponwriters.co.uk) was to write a seasonal limerick. This is mine and it expresses a deeply heartfelt wish!
A writer who hangs up her stocking
Hopes that luck will soon come a-knocking.
A self published best seller
Would put wine in the cellar
And bring agents and publishers flocking.
Thursday saw the Ripon U3A Spanish (of which I’m a member) and Book groups getting together over a leisurely Christmas lunch at The Old Deanery and very pleasant it was too. An unexpected bonus was the sound of carols being sung across the road at Ripon Cathedral. No photographs, unfortunately, but a very convivial atmosphere.
13 December, 2013 - Make the first comment on this story
A Celebratory Seasonal Reading
I was very pleased to have one of my stories chosen for inclusion at this event organised by the Friends of Harrogate Library (FOHL), not least because it gave me the opportunity to take a look round the newly refurbished premises. These are now of a very high standard and a real asset to the town.
Unsure of the procedure, I’d taken a copy of my story along but was agreeably surprised to find a team of readers (shown on the right of the photograph) waiting to entertain the audience. It was a rare treat to sit back and enjoy listening to someone else’s interpretation of my words and Harrogate Library’s Noelle McCreath (could a name have been more appropriate for a reading at this time of year?), seated in the middle of the trio, did them full justice – even the foreign phrases!
The interval refreshments, including my first mince pie this year, were delicious, the wine flowed freely and I was able to catch up with some friends I hadn’t seen for a while. All in all (although my story didn’t win this time round*), it was a very enjoyable evening.
*A slightly different version won a recent RWG competition. See http://www.riponwriters.co.uk/
Below is the press report on the evening:
7 December, 2013 - Make the first comment on this story
Club Focus on Ripon Activity Project
As a long term volunteer for RAP, a social group for adults with learning and/or physical disabilities, I was very happy to write the article below for our local newspaper. The limitations of an A4 scanner have led to its being split into two.
16 November, 2013 - Make the first comment on this story
Time on my hands now? Not a bit of it!
After nine years on the committee of Ripon Writers’ Group, three as Secretary, three as Vice Chair and the last three as Chair, tonight’s AGM has finally allowed me to retire to the back benches. This doesn’t mean, of course, that I shall cease to be an active member and I’ll continue to keep the website up to date for the foreseeable future.
A new challenge has already come my way in the shape of an invitation from Erewash Writers to feature in one of their regular competitions. Open to entrants worldwide, it’s for flash fiction and I’ve been allowed to choose the theme – carpe diem with a twist – as well as act as judge. Full details can be obtained from http://erewashwriterscompetition.weebly.com/2014-flash-fiction-with-maggie-cobbett.html
12 November, 2013 - Make the first comment on this story
Emmerdale is always full of surprises!
Today was a good example of that. I was on the minibus ferrying our happy band of extras out to the village when the two minute silence fell and it was good to see that everyone observed it.
As episodes are always filmed several weeks ahead, the set was bedecked with Christmas lights and a pretty sight it was too. The weather, however, is still quite mild and it wasn’t until darkness fell and the warm glow provided by the vegetable balti at lunchtime had receded that I was glad of my winter coat, scarf and gloves.
I was paired with Derek, a gentleman I’d never met before, who turned out to be a former member of The Rockin’ Berries and still very active in the music field. Derek had been everywhere and met everyone, including some of the idols of my youth. As we paraded up and down the village street and in and out of the Woolpack, he had many an interesting tale to tell about his glory days. Not all of those tales were repeatable, but you can get the gist from http://www.derekjason.com/about.htm
11 November, 2013 - Make the first comment on this story
A meeting with Nidderdale Writers
During my time as Chair of Ripon Writers’ Group, I’ve always been keen to liaise with other groups in the local area and was delighted to see members from Harrogate, Knaresborough, Leeds, Nidderdale and York at our ‘Literary Allsorts’ event in June. Over the years, I’ve spoken to, adjudicated for and taken part in events run by several of these groups.
This morning, I took up an invitation to drive over to Pateley Bridge in the heart of Nidderdale and give a talk about my published work to a very clued up and receptive group of fellow writers. I can only hope that they enjoyed the morning as much as I did. My only regret is that, despite an array of delicious food laid out before us, I found so much to say that even my coffee remained half drunk.
People who know me well will realise that this is far from being unusual!
6 November, 2013 - Make the first comment on this story
Get ahead, get a hat!
With Halloween upon us, sales of broad brimmed, generally black, tall and pointed hats have reached their annual peak. Mine was worn proudly at Strictly Salsa’s annual spooky bash, at least until it got in the way of my partners’ arms as they spun me round.
Have you ever wondered, though, how such hats acquired their evil reputation? Until the Middle Ages, illustrations showed ‘witches’ bare headed or wearing a variety of headgear current at the time. Heretics condemned by the Christian Church had long been made to wear conical hats* and yet there was a short period during the 15th century when the shape was all the rage in London. By the time the fashion spread out to rural areas, though, it had already been dropped by city dwellers and became something only country people, particularly women, would wear. These were often highly respected members of the community who gathered herbs for healing and maybe it was they who added a broad brim for practical reasons. Unfortunately, the Church continued to associate pointed hats with the horns of the Devil and many a ‘wise woman’ found herself accused of using ‘black arts’ and branded a witch. Chased, ridiculed, ostracised and murdered after trials in which they had no hope of being found innocent, this was one of the darkest periods of our history. Maybe that is why the Puritans and even the notorious Witchfinder General, Matthew Hopkins, who also had a penchant for tall hats, were careful to choose the flat crowned variety.
The statutory offence of witchcraft, punishable by death, was repealed in 1736 but fear of witches persisted long afterwards and was exacerbated by the many artists who portrayed them as old crones in pointed hats. From the stories of the Brothers Grimm to Disney cartoons, the image persists. (As an aside, my first memory of a witch’s hat was neither of these but a ride that pre-dates modern health and safety regulations. We hung on for grim death as it whirled us round a couple of feet or so above the rough concrete surface of the playground – a far cry from today’s vulcanised rubber. Nor did the thing have rounded corners and everything covered in plastic. Sharp edges abounded, the chains were orange with rust and there was always the possibility of our being flung off at high speed when older children spun the ring round the central pole as fast as they could.)
Terry Pratchett’s hilarious Discworld novels wouldn’t keep anyone awake at night (unless determined to finish his latest one), but his wizards and witches are generally devotees of the ‘pointy’ hat, as Terry puts it. In this extract from Wyrd Sisters, which has more than a little in common with Macbeth, he writes: As Granny Weatherwax says, she wears the Hat because ‘What’s the point in being a witch if no one can tell?’ The Hat says it all.
*These may have been predecessors of the notorious dunce’s cap, although some believe that this was originally a learning device. The idea of an apex or point representing the pinnacle of knowledge is common to many societies, and and a 13th century philosopher by the name of John Duns Scotus believed that the hat would funnel learning down to the learner.
31 October, 2013 - Make the first comment on this story
The unofficial Mayor of Emmerdale
Only one man deserves that title and I, as an ‘extra’ and ‘village regular’ on the show, couldn’t resist going along to the talk he gave in Ripon yesterday. Tim Fee began by telling his audience that he’d never done a day’s work in his life. Those of us who already knew about his long career in theatre and television must have looked sceptical, because he hastened to explain that everything he’d done had given him so much pleasure that he didn’t look at it as work. If only everyone could be as lucky as Tim!
Born to a musically gifted family in Blackburn, Lancashire – his parents were both talented pianists and his mother’s best friend was fellow Lancastrian Kathleen Ferrier – he was the youngest of five children. Refusing to learn to play a musical instrument as all his siblings had done, something he has regretted ever since, he was persuaded to take on the part of Hiawatha in a school production and this led to a lifelong love of verse speaking, drama and Shakespeare. However, it was right at the start of his time at Rose Bruford’s drama school in Kent that Tim realised that most actors spend a great deal of their time ‘resting’. Knowing that his parents were in no position to support him in this, he decided to concentrate his efforts back stage. Several years with the London Festival Ballet followed, including tours of the UK and abroad and an invitation to supper with Margot Fonteyn at her flat in Knightsbridge!
In 1973, whilst at the Bradford Alhambra, it was suggested to him by a stage hand that there was ‘more money in telly’ and he should apply for the position of floor manager at Yorkshire Television. He soon found himself in the drama department and on an upward climb through the ranks. Tim retired as line producer of Emmerdale (formerly Emmerdale Farm) in 2009. During his 22 years on the show, he saw it transformed from a sleepy rural production that the ITV executives in London loathed and wanted to scrap to one of the biggest soaps in television.
Tim’s proudest moment came in 2002 during the Queen’s Golden Jubilee tour. Having convinced the powers that be that a tour of the newly created village set in the grounds of Harewood House (owned by Her Majesty’s cousin, Lord Harewood) would be of more interest than anything the YTV studios in Leeds had to offer, he was placed in charge of the whole operation. Arranging such a visit is never simple and Tim had to tour the village with an equerry, organise an inspection by the Royal Protection Force and see the whole set thoroughly searched by police dog handlers. The Buckingham Palace press office, worried that enthusiasm for the Golden Jubilee might be flagging, asked him to come up with something that would ensure front page coverage. Ever resourceful, he decided to have the village post office ‘blown up’ by Emmerdale’s special effects guru Ian Rowling as soon as Her Majesty emerged from the Woolpack. (It is on record that she didn’t turn a hair when this happened a few feet away from where she was standing.)
The Emmerdale gardeners had been working hard and the set was looking at its best on the day, which coincided happily with a ‘village in bloom’ storyline. Despite earlier worries about whether her Rolls Royce would make it safely over the humped back bridge leading into the village, all went well and the Queen met a wide variety of actors, crew members and television executives. The ‘explosion’ took place on schedule, the rain which had begun as Her Majesty arrived eased off and the sun came out.
Photographs and more details of this very special day can be seen at http://www.emmerdale.net/interv/queen/queen.html
When Tim Fee retired in 2009, he was given a very special accolade, his own gravestone in the village cemetery. Here it is below:
29 October, 2013 - There are 2 comments on this story
Oh dear! Summer is really over.
Driving to Leeds in the dark for an early morning call time was a shock to the system after all those sunny mornings, but I was studio based today, working as a customer in the Emmerdale café.
The first scene took a long time to complete and I was seated on my own throughout with a cup of cold coffee in front of me and an old magazine about health issues to pore over. Now I’m much better informed about a number of unpleasant medical conditions that I hope never to experience!
We were filming scenes to be used in different episodes and I next found myself in a different outfit, at a new table and having an animated conversation with another extra. This aspect of my work is trickier than it sounds, because we have to look convincing without making a sound. Microphones these days are so sensitive that even a whisper can ruin a take. (Any background noise needed for a scene is added later on during the editing process.) Even when miming, it’s sometimes difficult to think what to say and I often hope that there aren’t too many lip readers amongst the viewers. When really desperate, some of us have been known to resort to multiplication tables. You can probably imagine the sort of thing:
Extra 1: Seven nines are sixty-three.
Extra 2: You don’t say! Well, nine fives are forty-five, you know.
And so on and so forth!
26 September, 2013 - Make the first comment on this story
A Few Thoughts on Downton Abbey
I love Downton Abbey, but I do wish they’d film ‘local scenes’ up here in North Yorkshire where the story is set and not two hundred miles to the south in Berkshire and Oxfordshire. Amongst other things, the former Ripon workhouse, a place to which I often take visiting friends, is now one of our star attractions.
With its imposing gatehouse, it’s not at all like the building shown in last night’s episode. The unfortunate Charlie Grigg, former song and dance partner of Mr Carson, the butler, might well have been an inmate there at the same time as novelist Barbara Taylor Bradford’s grandmother and her children. (Their sad story was well documented recently in ITV’s Secrets From The Workhouse.)
23 September, 2013 - There are 2 comments on this story
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